This website is for those who love to make lace, who want to learn lace
making, or who
love to collect lace. Special emphasis goes to bobbin lace, my
specialty, but also to needle lace, pulled thread work and Hardanger embroidery. You will find
descriptions of the working methods of many forms of hand made lace, and lessons
for bobbinlace, needle lace, pulled thread embroidery (also called drawn fabric embroidery)
and Hardanger embroidery. I have included information on books for
needlelace, as well as links to a few tutorials.
There are many photos of antique lace, and of laces made by living lace makers,
or designed by living lace designers. For those interested in
lace identification, my aim is to increase your understanding of the structure
of the various laces, and thereby increase your enjoyment of the objects you
love. This is a new and updated version of my old website
loreleihalley.com. Below find a complete list of all the pages in this website, with a brief description of the
contents of each page.

Nearly all the photos on this website have been taken by me using a film
camera, more recent ones with a digital camera. Many close-ups of small
pieces were scanned in. Some, about 5%, are digital files passed to me
over the internet by the photographer, and used with their permission.
None are from books. The range of photos reflects the contents of personal
lace collections of people I know personally. (The abbreviation c/o means
"from the collection of".) Only a very few had laces in
their collections which were really old -- prior to 1800. I encountered
some of the oldest laces seen here very early in my attempts at photography,
before I had macro capabilities. So I don't have close-ups of the
oldest pieces, much to my sorrow.

All the images immediately visible on these pages are thumbnails: small
reduced versions to make loading faster. To see the whole image in all its
glory, click wherever you see a hand. But many of the pages have large
numbers of thumbnails and are slow to load, even so. Please be patient.
Also you may want to see a much enlarged version of some images (the detail is
really there). You can achieve this easily in Internet Explorer by looking
for the PAGE button on the Explorer bar (right side just above the image).
Click on PAGE, then on ZOOM and view the files at 200%. You can then see
each thread (in many, but not all, photos).

Lace Identification -- different techniques and methods of
lacemaking
*

Kinds of Lace:
brief descriptions of the major structural methods of making lace

Compare: photos showing different kinds of lace side
by side to help in distinguishing them

Learning Bobbin LaceAchieving a basic understanding of the various
kinds of bobbin lace, learning bobbinlace, make bobbinlace, how to
get started. The different kinds of bobbin lace use
different ways of solving problems. Bobbin lacemaking. Make lace.

Bobbin Lace: With the history pages, please be patient.
Some have a lot of photos and even thumbnails need time to load.

Bobbin lace identification (the first 2 pages):
*

Two Structural
Classes: Straight lace (continuous lace) and Part lace
(sectional lace, also called free lace or freeform lace). Also structural
distinctions between regional/period styles of bobbin lace.

Learning Bobbin Lace: advice on how to set about learning, good books to help you learn bobbin
lace, links to online lessons, photos of
the typical learning laces for each form, advice on equipment. If you are
thinking of taking a workshop, look at the learning laces, so you will know what
to expect.

Bobbin Lace Basics:
winding the bobbins, making the hitch, repairing a broken thread, the stitches,
international color coding system, various kinds of sewings

Two Structural
Classes: explains the difference between Straight lace (continuous
lace) and Part lace (sectional lace, also called free lace or freeform lace). Also structural
distinctions between regional/period styles of bobbin lace.

Make a Pillow:
Instructions for making a pillow out of wood and wool: a cookie pillow and a
roller pillow.

Needle lace: Point de Gaze needlelace from the last half of the 19th
century.

Needle lace

How to:

Needle Lace Introduction:
How it is made, general working methods. Also called punto in aria,
dentelle a l'aguille, merletto ad ago, pizzod'ago, encaje de aguja, sita krajka,
Nadelspitze

Learning Needlelace:
Details of the working sequence, recommended books, lessons on line,
other online resources to help you learn needle lace, photos of
samplers and learning pieces.

Needle Lace Tutorial:
Detailed instructions for a simple bookmark, explaining the basics of setting up
the sandwich, how to attach beginning and ending tails of the lace threads,
buttonholing the cordonnette to secure the ends.

Filet lace (also called
filet lacis, guipure d'art, lacis)
is made on a square mesh knotted net. It can be made in the round,
but this is rare.

Tenerife (Sol Lace, Nanduti) is made on a
framework laid down like the spokes of a wheel. Individual motifs
are mostly round, but can be square or hexagonal. Some Paraguayan
(Nanduti) work has highly inventive shapes: crescents, stars, triangles.

How to do pulled thread embroidery, for those who want to
learn pulled thread embroidery:

Pulled thread embroidery
General description and introduction to working methods, general advice for getting
started, overall strategy; online resources. Called Ajour Arbeit or Perser Ajour
Arbeit in German.

I am offering a great deal of information free to all the world, but I expect
my copyright to be respected. None of my photographs, diagrams or text may
be used for any commercial purpose whatsoever, unless I give permission in
writing. None of my photographs, diagrams or text may be copied
electronically or posted on the web unless I give permission in writing.
Personal private use is permitted.